How are you feeling now, tough guy?
(To commemorate the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad – sorry, I’m a little late). Thanks to our fighting forces, the coalition, and the Iraqis who’ve fought along side them.
THEN:
Wednesday, 17 July, 2002, 11:40 GMT 12:40 UK:
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has said that “evil tyrants and oppressors” will not be able to unseat him and his government.
“You will never defeat me this time. Never!” said Saddam Hussein, speaking in a televised address.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 16, 2002:
Saddam Hussein Wins One-Man Race
Iraq declared Saddam Hussein the winner Wednesday – by an 11 million-to-0 margin – in a war-shadowed referendum on his two-decade military rule, sending celebratory gunfire crackling from the streets and rooftops of Baghdad.
The 100 percent turnout, 100 percent ‘yes’ vote shows all Iraqis are poised to defend Saddam against American forces, the country’s No. 2 man said.
“If they come, we will fight them in every village, and every house,” said Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council, announcing results on what Iraq billed as a people’s referendum on keeping Saddam in power another seven years.
FAST FORWARD:
Last Updated: Wednesday, 9 April, 2003, 14:57 GMT 15:57 UK:
Baghdad falls to US forces
The government of Saddam Hussein has lost control over Baghdad, with the advance of US forces into the centre of the capital.US tanks drove unhindered into public squares on the eastern bank of the Tigris for the first time, including the area surrounding the Palestine hotel, where the international media are based.
In a symbolic moment, an American armoured vehicle helped a crowd of cheering Iraqis to pull down a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the al-Fardus square in front of the hotel.
Dozens of exultant people leapt on the deposed figure and stamped on it, shouting “Death to Saddam!”.
Sunday, December 14, 2003:
Saddam Captured ‘Like a Rat’ in Raid
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Without firing a single shot, U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein as he hid in the bottom of a hole at a farmhouse near Tikrit on Saturday.“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, announced.
“The tyrant is a prisoner,” Bremer said.
The former Iraqi dictator was captured Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the cellar of a farmhouse in the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit, ending one of the most intense manhunts in history. Saddam has been on the run since the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces on April 9.
“He was caught like a rat,” said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno of the 4th Infantry Division at a separate press conference in Tikrit. “It was ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from the great palaces her built using all the money he robbed from the Iraqi people.”
Thursday, April 7, 2005 Posted: 7:16 AM EDT (1116 GMT):
Saddam sees new president’s election
Iraqi transitional assembly elects Kurdish leader
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraq’s new transitional assembly took an expected but historic step Wednesday, electing Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the nation’s president — a symbol of the new Kurdish clout in the largely Arab nation.Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein watched from his jail cell as the longtime leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan assumed the title Saddam held before he was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The vote was largely a formality and the role largely ceremonial, but the selection of a Kurdish president was a poignant, symbolic moment for a country where Kurds were persecuted under Saddam’s Sunni Arab regime.